Introduction

Throughout the years, people have observed their universe and tried to uncover its secrets. To answer some thorny questions, many scientists have made important discoveries, considering the restrictions of the age they lived in; and others have been noteworthy in their own times, yet the claims they made later came to be regarded as scientific errors.

Claudius Ptolemy was a scientist and philosopher of the second century CE, who lived in Alexandria when it was the center of scientific research. He observed the skies in order to learn about the universe and the world's place in it and pondered the movements of the Sun, Moon and stars. Finally, he concluded that the Earth must be the center of the universe. According to his theory, the Earth was motionless, and the Sun, Moon and the stars all rotated around it. His writings attracted much attention, were translated into many languages, and had a great influence, especially on European culture. The Catholic Church based its theology on Ptolemy's Earth-centered model. Within a short time, some people noticed discrepancies in his theory, but were forced into silence because of the wide popularity that Ptolemy enjoyed. Once noticed, however, these discrepancies could not be easily ignored. By the 15th century, Copernicus had shown the errors in Ptolemy's ideas and came out firmly against the idea of an Earth-centered universe. As the centuries went on, it became known that the Earth was a planet revolving around the Sun, which was only one star among millions of others in the Milky Way, and that the Milky Way was just one example of countless other galaxies composed of stars.

Claudius Ptolemy

Humans had always been fascinated by fire and the flames it gives off, but its secret had not yet been discovered. Towards the end of the 1600s, a German scientist, G.E. Stahl, tried to discover the source of fire. As a result of his experiments, he proposed that fire was caused by an invisible substance called phlogiston, which he believed could penetrate and emerge from objects. Any object that contained phlogiston burned quickly, while substances lacking phlogiston did not burn at all. The smoke coming from a burning object was thought to be expulsion of phlogiston from it, as the burning material shrank and weakened. It was also believed that when burning material was smothered, it hindered the expulsion of phlogiston, and so the fire went out. But in time it was observed that metals did not shrink or weaken as they burned, and so certain doubts grew up about phlogiston's reality.

Towards the end of the 18th century, the atmosphere was found to be composed of several different gasses. While some tried to explain the different ways in which these gasses burned in terms of the phlogiston theory, experiments performed with oxygen showed the theory to be invalid. As a result of his observing metal burning in oxygen, Antoine Lavoisier, a French scientist, discovered that the weight of the burning metal increased, while the amount of oxygen decreased. His experiments demonstrated the source of fire. Objects burn when they absorb oxygen. The hypothetical substance called phlogiston had never existed!

Another example of an historic scientific error is the "explanation" for the origin of electricity. In the 1780s, Italian physician Luigi Galvani performed experiments with animals and suddenly came across a new source of electricity—or so he believed. In his experiments with frogs, he saw the frog's leg muscles contract when in contact with metal. As a result, he concluded that metal extracts electricity from the muscles and nerves of animals.

Galvani had performed this experiment on one single leg with one piece of metal. However, Alessandro Volta, a colleague of his who suspected the real explanation behind this experiment, began his own work on the subject. He attached two ends of a wire to a frog's leg and observed no muscular contraction. After this, Volta went on to refute the proposal that electricity came from a frog or any other animal. Electricity is produced by a stream of electrons, and metal conducts the electrons more easily. The theory of "animal electricity" was simply an error of a particular moment in history.

Copernicus demolished the Earth-centered model of the universe proposed by Ptolemy and adopted by the Catholic Church. The new model portrayed the Earth as merely a part of the Solar System.

These examples clearly show that in the past, some totally wrong claims have been made about processes that are very well known today. Scientists have been caught up in various errors either because of the unsophisticated research equipment of their time, their limited understanding, or because of their own prejudices. Among such scientific errors, the greatest—and most enduring—historic example is one theory put forward concerning the origins of life. This theory's illogical claims have exerted a much greater influence than any of the examples given above. This error, called Darwinism, unites a materialist world view with a belief in evolution.

In late 1600s, scientists proposed that fire was caused by an invisible substance called phlogiston. Long afterwards, however, it was realized that "phlogiston" was not the source of fire at all.

At one time, with insufficient evidence at hand, some people regarded this theory as scientific. Charles Darwin's book The Origin of Species was known to be inconsistent, even at the time of its publication in 1859, but it awakened interest in some circles. Darwin made his assumptions without the benefit of genetics or biochemistry. But the mistaken claims he made, based on the then-insufficient fossil record, were avidly welcomed by those inclined to accept them for philosophical reasons. There was a clear affinity between Darwin's theory and materialist philosophy. Darwin tried to explain the origins of all living things in terms of chance and material factors, and therefore his theory rejected the existence of a Creator. It would take a series of discoveries made in the 20th century to show his theory to be wrong, completely irrational and illogical.

Once upon a time, frogs were also the subject of a scientific error that deceived evolutionists.

Luigi Galvani

In a few scientific circles, Darwinism is still a widespread obsession, but this does not preclude the knowledge that its days have come to an end. All the scientific suppositions that once supported the theory have crumbled, one by one. The only reason why Darwinism is still alive is because in some scientific circles, a few fanatics still passionately espouse the materialist philosophy it's based on. The world of Darwinism resembles the Soviet Union in the second half of the 1980s, when the Communist ideology had collapsed and its suppositions had been proved wrong, but the institutions of the communist system remained in existence. The generations who had been brainwashed by communist ideology still espoused it blindly. Because of their dogmatism, the Communist system that for all practical purposes had collapsed was kept alive for a while longer. It was hoped that policies such as Glasnost and Perestroika could reform and revive it. Yet the inevitable collapse eventually took place.

Darwin, examining specimens with the primitive equipment available to him in the 19th century, failed to realize how complex life was, and thus fell into a serious error.

Long before this collapse, however, some perceived that communism was basically exhausted. Many Western observers wrote that the Soviet establishment could do no more than slow down the inevitable collapse for a little while.

Enormous progress was made in scientific investigation and research; many discoveries were made.Advances in the realm of science also reveal the true face of outdated theories such as Darwinism.

Modern computers have now replaced ones the size of a whole room, which were once thought to be so impressive (bottom of left-hand page). Black and white televisions, whose invention was greeted with great excitement, have now been replaced by colored TVs giving a perfect image; and gramophones by modern stereos and CD players.

At the time when Darwinism gained acceptance, everything was very backward. This caused people to be easily taken in by the nonsense of Darwinism. In the 20th century, however, Darwinism was proven to be outdated and entirely false.

A 19th-century camera and a new one

The telephone in its early days and its present state

In this book, we describe how Darwinism, too, has long been defunct from the scientific point of view. It convinced some individuals for a while, but it finally became clear that it never had any real scientific foundation. The claims used in support of Darwinism over the past 150 years have all been rendered invalid. All the alleged "proofs" of evolution have been refuted, one by one. Soon, all those in the scientific community who are laboring under the delusion of such a theory will realize the truth and be astonished at how they could have been taken in. As the Swedish scientist Søren Løvtrup said, "I believe that one day the Darwinian myth will be ranked the greatest deceit in the history of science."1 For this realization to come about, all the necessary scientific data are there. All that remains is for some scientific circles to accept the fact.

In the following pages, we'll examine some scientific data that have invalidated the theory of evolution; and show that this great error was based on the inadequate level of 19th-century science.

Darwinism has undergone a complete scientific collapse. This theory, which has never had any realistic scientific basis, seemed convincing to some because of the unsophisticated level of science at the time. But as scientific understanding progressed, it became apparent that it was actually a deception.

Notes

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